Marcus du Sautoy

From school onwards, we accept there is a separation between art and mathematics. But what if we’re wrong? Marcus du Sautoy argues that maths and art may not be polar opposites after all, and that their complementary relationship spans a vast historical and geographic landscape, from the earliest stone circles to Mozart’s obsession with numbers and the radically modern architecture of Zaha Hadid.

Du Sautoy has been named by the Independent on Sunday as one of the UK’s leading scientists. In 2008 he was appointed to Oxford University’s Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science, a post previously held by Richard Dawkins.